Title: Boy-Who-Lived: Father-To-Be

Author: SweetMercy

Rating: M

Warnings: mpreg, slash, may have small references to HBP, has naughty swear words!

Pairings: RL/HP but has references to others

Chapter 19: The Nanny

"Right," said Remus as he grabbed his briefcase off the table and threw his cloak over his shoulders, "I will see you after work. If you need anything just send for me and I'll be right here, ok?"

"Sure," he said as he watched Remus run a comb quickly through his light hair.

"I would come up at lunch time but I think I might try and get some work done then so I'm free to help out tonight." He smoothed his work robes out in front of the mirror.

"I know," said Harry.

"Remember," he said, turning to look at Harry from the door. "If you need anything, anything at all, don't hesitate to ask, you got that?"

"Yes," he said.

"Right, I have to go," he said hastily, kissing Harry on the cheek, "I need to sort out today's work. If I don't see you at lunch, I'll see you later tonight. Love you." And with that he left.

Harry flopped back down onto the bed and stared at the door through which Remus had just disappeared and he couldn't help but feel apprehensive. Today he would be returning to school; the only problem was he hadn't told Remus - for the simple reason being he really didn't want to be the one to bring up Sirius, who would be looking after the triplets whilst Harry was in class. Harry was almost certain that Remus wouldn't be - to put it nicely - entirely happy with Sirius being here with the babies. He had tried to reason with himself to pluck up the courage to tell Remus what was going on because this was another one of those situations where it was inevitable that he would find out. But, once again, he had messed up and had failed to tell him at the right moment.

With a heavy sigh he threw on his robe and grabbed a comb in the attempt to straighten his hair. The sun was now visible in the autumn sky, just hiding behind the Quidditch Pitch. That was one of the reasons why Harry was so fond of his new room; it had the perfect view of the Quidditch pitch and Quidditch always made him smile.

With a last look in the mirror, he picked up his school bag and went out into the living room to find Sirius emerging from the fire. Harry smiled at him and made his way over to the kitchen.

"Thank you so much for doing this Sirius," he said, pulling a list out of a drawer. "I owe you big time."

"It's nothing," he smiled watching Harry, "Really. I want to help."

"But still," said Harry. "I mean, it's such short notice and I'm sure you have better things to do with your time than look after three babies."

"Well, it's either this or sit around the house and talk to myself," he smiled. "I think I'd much rather be doing this. Plus, you need to get back to school; you've got your exams this year."

"Don't remind me," he muttered. He came over to the sofa where Sirius was sat and handed him the piece of parchment. Yesterday (before he and Remus had made up) he had spent over an hour writing, checking, and re-checking the list of instructions he had made up for Sirius.

"Right," he said, "I've wrote you a list of everything you need to know. Bottles are in the top right cupboard with the baby milk powder. If they get a bit cranky around lunch time, give them the milk that's in the fridge but make sure that anything you give them is the right temperature – I've wrote that on there," he pointed to the list in Sirius' hand. "The baby wipes and the clean nappies are in the bathroom, bottom cupboard under the sink. You can change them on the changing mat in the bathroom – don't worry, they can't fall off – but make sure you only have one baby in there at a time otherwise they will fall off. Put the dirty nappies in the bags provided and then in the bin – make sure you wash your hands thoroughly before picking them up…"

"Harry," Sirius smiled, shaking his head, "I know what to do."

"I know," said Harry, "But I'm just making sure. Now, they should sleep most of the time, but they don't sleep nearly as much as they did last week. If they start crying and they don't need feeding, changing, or burping, then just give them a cuddle and talk to them. If you've been cuddling them for a while, they're not crying, but still wide awake then give them a bath, but only one at a time. Don't let go of them, support them so they don't slip, don't get soap in their eyes, and mind their heads – they've still got the soft spots. Their towels are folded up next to the heater to keep them warm."

"I know," he said. "I've done this before with you after all."

"Ok, ok," he said, standing up and picking his bag up again. "But these are my babies, you know…I love them so much and I need to make sure that you know what you're doing."

"I completely understand," he smiled. "And you have my word that they are in the safest possible hands."

"Yeah," he muttered with a smile. "Yeah I know. I trust you. I'm sorry. It's just…I've never left them like this before."

"I can send you an hourly update if you like," he teased.

"Yes, I know, I'm overreacting." He gave Sirius a brief hug and walked over to the door but turned abruptly back round.

"Oh God, I almost forgot! The colours!"

"Huh?

"I had to colour code most things, partly because I kept getting mixed up, partly because I had to. Joshua is blue, Leanna is yellow, and Skylar is pink. If you change their clothes then those are the colours that they have, ok? Now, this is important; Skylar has sensitive skin so she has to wear the nappies that have the pink stripe across them ok? The other two can have the nappies in the purple packet, but Skylar needs the pink ones, right? You got that? The pink ones. Ok?"

"Yes, Harry, I've got it," he said, looking over at him to reassure him. "Skylar has everything pink. Joshua is blue for a boy, Leanna is yellow for her amber eyes. Got it. Besides, it's all written down in big, bold, underlined letters here," he shook the list. "Relax," he smiled. "I know what I'm doing and, if in the unlikely event that I don't, I won't act until I have talked to you, ok? And if I can't get to you then I'll have half a dozen Healers down here like that," he clicked his fingers.

"Thanks Sirius, you think of everything," he hugged him again. "Right," he said, walking back over to the door, "If you need anything, you have a copy of my timetable. I'm taking the Marauders map with me but I'm leaving you the invisibility cloak in case something happens. Now, I've got my half of the two-way mirror, I hope you've got yours," he looked at Sirius who pulled the small mirror out of his robe pocket with a smile. "Good," said Harry. "If anything happens then I want you to contact me straight away. There's a list of Healer, Ministry, and Order contact details on the fridge so if something drastic happens, I want you to fire call them, ok?"

"Harry, you have my word that I will guard these three babies with my life," he said seriously.

"Really?" Harry looked pleadingly at him.

"Marauders honour," he said holding up a hand and Harry smiled.

"Ok," he breathed. "I'm going to go now. Take care, look after them, and if anything…"

"I know," he laughed. "If anything happens, jump out of the way and let Voldemort run off with them."

"Ok, Mr Sirius-ly not funny, I'm staying here," Harry said un-amused and he came back into the room but Sirius grabbed hold of him lightly and turned him around.

"You are going to school," he laughed, pushing him towards the door. "The babies are going to be fine; they couldn't possibly be safer, have you got that? Now go."

"Ok," he said, "Ok. I'm going. I'm going to school. I'm going. See? I'm walking out of the door."

"Keep walking," said Sirius. "I don't want to see your pretty little face until the end of school." And with that, Harry stepped out into the common room and Sirius shut the door.

Quite suddenly he was overcome with a sense of emptiness. He didn't know why he was feeling so worried; after all, he had left them before. True, he hadn't been away from them for more than an hour, but he'd still left them hadn't he? And Sirius was looking after them. Sirius, the man who had become the Potter's secret keeper at the risk of his own life; Sirius, the man who had gone to prison for a crime he didn't commit; Sirius, the man who had broken out of prison to try and protect Harry. Sirius was with the triplets.

Feeling a lot easier, he set off for the Great Hall.

"Harry, what are you doing here?"

He had just taken up his seat at the Gryffindor table, aware that many faces had turned in his direction but he found he didn't care; he had three beautiful babies and all they had was gossip. Besides, he had much more important things to be concerned about.

"I can't stay in my room forever, can I?" he said, picking up a piece of toast. "I have to start back at school at some point. It's N.E.W.T's year after all."

"But who is looking after the babies?" asked Hermione. "Surely the well-being of your children is more important than an education right now?"

For a moment, Harry was stunned that he had heard these words and he had to make sure that they had actually come from Hermione.

"I thought nothing was more important that an education?" said Ron, obviously as shocked as Harry was at this.

"Of course there are things more important," she said. "I just thought that Harry had more sense than to just hire anybody for the job of looking after his children."

"For you information," he said, waving a piece of toast at her, "I haven't hired just 'anybody' – I'm not that stupid."

"Then who have you got looking after them then?" she asked.

"Sirius," he told them. "I asked him yesterday and he was more than happy to help."

"Sirius Black?"

"Do we know any other 'Sirius''?"

"But, from what Ron said last night, you only just got back together with…" she lowered her voice, "With Remus. Is he alright with all this?"

"Actually," he said slowly, "He doesn't know yet."

"You really are an idiot, you know that Harry?"

"Gee, thanks," he muttered. "Look, I know what I'm doing, ok? Besides, don't you think the main priority here is to get back to school and make sure my babies are being looked after by the best possible person?"

"He's right you know," said Ron, but Hermione ignored him.

"And you think Sirius is the 'best possible person' for the job, do you?" she asked sceptically.

"Yeah," he said defensively, "I do. Think about it; he looked after me when I was little, he's really strong, he's my godfather, and he's one of the most loyal people I know."

"And the fact that you slept with him and you and Remus fell out over it doesn't mean a thing?"

"Right," he said.

"Well, if you ask me," she said, "You're heading for trouble again."

"Well no one asked you did they?" said Ron. "Just ignore her," he said to Harry, "I think it's great you're back at school and you've got someone reliable and trustworthy," he emphasized the words for Hermione's sake, "to look after the babies."

"Thanks Ron," he smiled. Hermione just shook her head.

Through out the day, Harry was bombarded with questions and comments from students. Most of them were really happy for him and asked if they could perhaps come and visit to see the babies; some even offered to help. He did, however, get some nasty stares – mainly from the Slytherins – but he ignored them. As he kept reminding himself, they really weren't worth the bother.

Once back in the classroom, Harry's worries about the babies were swept away. The work they were doing in lessons required all of their concentration and by the end of Charms, Harry almost felt things were back to normal and that there had never been any interruption in the flow of things. Almost.

Every now and then, Harry couldn't help but sneak a glance at the map he was now carrying around in his robe pocket but he did, however, resist the urge to use the mirror. As Hermione had to constantly remind him, if something was wrong then Sirius would contact him. But apart from that, he felt as if a huge weight had been lifted off his shoulders.

At lunch time, however, he was quickly becoming the paranoid parent again. He knew that it was all part of the being a parent; you had to learn to leave them and trust them with some one else. But he felt as though they were a part of him, and physically they had been for 9 months. He just wanted to be there with them. He just wanted to hold them in his arms and look at them. If it wasn't for Hermione he would have been running up the many staircases back to his room right now.

"You can do this Harry," she said encouragingly. "Just two more hours to go, that's all. You'll be able to see them again in just two more hours time."

"But what if something happens in those two hours? What if something happens to Sirius and he can't…"

"Nothing is going to happen," she said. "I promise you."

Harry could feel himself starting to shake. It was taking all of his self control to just sit at the table when all he wanted to do was run. He quickly cast around for a change of topic in order to distract himself.

"So, what are you guys up to this weekend?"

After lunch was over (and Harry had succeeded in staying away from Gryffindor Tower) they got up and headed for third lesson, Defence Against the Dark Arts, and Harry was dreading it. He hadn't seen Remus since this morning, the man having been held up at lunch. He wasn't quite sure what he was going to say to him, but was once again regretting not having informed him of the situation sooner.

He entered the classroom and took up his usual spot at the front, pulling out his books, parchment, and quill. He set them neatly on his desk and looked up to find Remus looking at him questioningly, although surprised all the same. As the class were still talking amongst themselves, Remus came up to him.

"I wasn't expecting to see you here," he said. "You didn't say you were starting back today."

"I know," said Harry quietly. "I forget." Well that was a dumb answer, Harry scolded himself mentally.

"You forgot you were coming back?" he asked incredulously.

"Yeah," Harry nodded, "What with everything going on…" He trailed off as he was unsure of what to say next.

"Who are the babies with? Please tell me you haven't left them with just anyone." Why did everyone keep thinking that? First Hermione, now Remus. Did they seriously think that he would leave his own flesh and blood with just anyone? Especially when they were at war. Did they think he was that irresponsible?

"No, I haven't," he said. "They're safe, don't worry."

"Who are they with then?" he asked.

"Someone from the Order," Harry muttered. He could see Hermione looking at him from the corner of his eye and, combined with Remus' questioning, he was becoming flustered.

"Who? I thought they were all at work?" said Remus. But before Harry had to go through the trouble of thinking of something to say, Ron spoke up and saved him.

"Professor, what mark did I get for my homework?" he asked. "I really tried hard with that and I've been looking forward to it all weekend."

Although this comment brought some sniggers from some of the students, it worked. Remus straightened up and laughed, making his way back to his desk.

"You need to try harder Ron," he smiled, handing him back his homework. "Not quite full marks, but you do have a very interesting take on the habits of the Runespoor."

"Damn," Ron muttered, but he winked at Harry who mouthed back 'thank you'.

Harry spent most of the lesson not taking in a word of what Professor Lupin was saying. Instead, his mind was searching for all the possible ways of getting out of talking to Remus at the end of the lesson, but when he saw no convincing way to achieve this he started looking for the best way in which to tell Remus that Sirius was looking after their children. All scenarios ended up with the both of them having another argument.

By the end of the lesson, Harry had just prepared himself for the worst. He would argue his case and he would not show weakness; that was the best way to do it. He wasn't going to let himself get upset over this; he was in the right and he wasn't going to let Remus convince him otherwise.

The classroom emptied a lot sooner than Harry had expected and he looked up as he felt Remus' eyes fall on him. He gulped.

"You haven't listened to a word I've said in class today, have you? What's wrong?"

The man was being all nice and caring again. How the hell was Harry going to tell him? And how the hell did Harry get himself into these things? Maybe he could just make a run for it…jump out of the window…accidentally fall into the fire with a handful of floo powder…

"Nothing's wrong," he muttered. "It's just…I've done something you're not going to be too pleased about."

"Like what?"

Harry bit the inside of his cheek and looked at his desk. He felt very much like a school boy who was about to be told off by his teacher for some juvenile mistake. In a way, Harry thought sadly, he was.

"I've asked Sirius to look after the babies whilst I'm at school." He said this quietly, head still down. But as he said it he noticed that he didn't feel the remorse or the shame he thought he would; in fact, he felt quite good about it. He had left Sirius in charge and he was damn proud of his decision. Apparently, Remus wasn't.

"You what?" he snapped. "You left our children with him?"

"Yes," said Harry, feeling stronger, and he looked up at Remus. "Yes, I left them with him and he's going to be looking after them whenever I need him to or when he wants to."

"I don't think so," said Remus obstinately. "I will not have that man looking after my children!"

"Our children," Harry corrected him. "And 'that man' is your best friend."

"Used to be my best friend," said Remus. "How could you think I would be ok with this?"

"I didn't think you'd be ok with this," Harry told him with a frown. "I knew you'd be against it. Why do you think I can't tell you these things?"

"'Against it' is just a nice way of putting it," he said sharply, ignoring Harry's last comment. "What I feel towards that man goes beyond that."

"You're just being childish," Harry said angrily. "Would you prefer me to stay with them and never go back to school?"

"Of course I don't want that," he shouted. "But why him?"

"Because he's Sirius," said Harry heatedly, "And I wouldn't have anyone else look after them!"

"I don't want Sirius anywhere near us, is that understood?" he shouted fiercely and Harry was forcefully reminded of what Sirius had told him about the werewolf, but he didn't feel threatened. Instead, he was angered by these words, by the determination and hatred with which Remus spoke.

"I carried them for 9 months, I gave birth to them!" he shouted at him, getting to his feet and staring the man in the face. "And if I remember correctly, you left me to deal with them on my own for a whole week! I really don't think you have a say in this!"

"They're my children just as much as they're yours!" he snapped. "I have every right to a say in this!"

"Oh, I don't think so," Harry retorted. "You left the Hospital in such a hurry that you didn't sign their birth certificate. You may be their father by blood, but you aren't legally. You have no rights!"

"You bastard," he growled. "I can't believe you just said that!"

"Well it's the truth!" Harry shouted. "And until you start acting like their father I'm not prepared to let you sign anything."

"I'm their father!" he yelled. "You can't do this to me!"

"And you can't make me shut Sirius out of my life! He's a part of my life and he's going to be a part of the babies lives as well, whether you like it or not!"

"I don't want him having anything to do with our children!" he shouted. "After everything he's done to me I don't even know why I stayed friends with him for this long!"

Harry opened his mouth to shout back put he closed it again; yelling wasn't doing either of them any good. He took a breath and tried to calm himself down before he spoke again.

"You remember when you said you'd be with me no matter who the father was?" said Harry, quietly but strongly. "You said it didn't matter who their father was, you would still be with me and love me and the children all the same. Would you still have come back to me last night if they had been Sirius'? Or was it all just talk? Empty words?"

"When I said that I didn't know it meant 'Sirius'," he snarled.

"So you would have left me then?" asked Harry, hurt. "After everything you said, you would have just left me to raise three children on my own?"

"Like I said," he whispered dangerously. "I will not raise Sirius' children. And I certainly won't let him help raise my own."

"You selfish prat," Harry breathed sharply and he felt ashamed to feel tears creeping into his eyes after he had promised himself he wouldn't cry. "You don't love me at all, do you? It was all just talk after all, wasn't it? You just want a family and someone to fuck. You don't care about me. You don't care about what I want. To you I'm just some stupid teenager who had your children."

When Remus didn't reply, Harry turned around. He wasn't about to wait for the man to think up more excuses. He wasn't going to stand here and wait for a little ray of hope. He had made it all the way across the classroom and to the door when Remus finally spoke up.

"I love you," he said quietly. "And I'm scared of losing you."

"Then why are you pushing me away?" Harry asked, looking back at him. Remus had sat down in the seat Harry had vacated and his head was in his hands. Harry slowly crossed the room and approached Remus, immensely glad at the change of tempo the argument had suddenly taken.

"Because I'm stupid," he sniffed and they both managed a small laugh. Remus dried his eyes. "Because I'm scared of letting you get too close."

"Why?" asked Harry softly, kneeling down in front of him.

"In case you don't like what you see," he muttered. "In case you don't like what we have so you leave me and hurt me. And if you hurt me, I'll hurt you…and I can't bear that thought. I love you so much…I would never forgive myself."

"That would never happen," Harry said.

"It did with Sirius," he told him. "We were together and I thought we were really happy. I got too close to him so when we broke up I wanted to hurt him. I almost killed him Harry."

"No, the wolf almost killed him," Harry said, "It wasn't you. And besides, who says that is going to happen with us?"

When Remus didn't say anything, Harry continued.

"I never set out to hurt you when I slept with him, you know? I never meant for all of this to happen. You think I want to be stuck with three kids at this age? Do you think I want to be stuck in the middle of this…disaster? I don't know what to do…I really don't. Everything seems to be going wrong…I can't get anything right…I can't please the people I want to please and I always seem to hurt the people I love…I love you with all my heart and I would never leave you."

Harry had stopped battling the tears long ago and had settled his head in Remus' lap, sobbing gently. He heard Remus sniff and he moved to wipe his eyes again.

"How many times are we going to argue before we get it right?" said Remus. "This is all my fault for being so…"

"It's not all your fault at all," said Harry, looking up at him. "If I wasn't so stupid I wouldn't get myself in to these things and we wouldn't be arguing."

"But it's me," he said, "If I could just forget the whole thing with Sirius…but I can't. I can't forget what happened and I…"

"I'm not saying you have to," said Harry. "I'm just asking you to just…let him be there. You don't have to make friends – just don't drive him away from us."

Remus seemed to consider this before he spoke. It was only then that Harry became aware of the time; lessons had started 15 minutes ago. It was alright for Harry because he had a free period, but Remus was supposed to be teaching. Harry turned his head towards the closed door where, no doubt, 30 odd students stood waiting, wondering what was going on inside the classroom.

"I don't have to talk to him do I?" Remus asked and Harry looked back at him. "Sirius I mean. I won't have to talk to him will I?"

"I wouldn't make you do anything you don't want to do," said Harry.

"Then I suppose he can look after them," he sniffed. "And I'm sorry for being such a jerk about all this…but it hurts, you know?"

"I know," said Harry. "I'm sorry for making all this shit happen."

"And I'm sorry for making it worse," he said with a small smile.

Harry pulled himself onto Remus' knee and into a loving kiss. Somehow, the kiss seemed to make everything alright again. It chased his fears away and reassured him that he was in love and was loved in return. It made everything that had happened before seem unimportant and it reminded him of the beautiful things life had given him. There were so many emotions in just one simple gesture; there was sorrow and forgiveness, there was hate, love, regret, need, happiness, lust, there was acknowledgment and acceptance. He found he could easily get lost in the kiss.

"At least there's an upside to arguing," said Remus when he pulled away for air. "We can always look forward to the 'kiss and make up' bit."

"How about we just skip the argument bit and jump straight to the kissing?" Harry said with a smile.

"Fine by me," Remus smiled leaning in for another kiss but Harry put a finger to his lips.

"But the kissing is going to have to wait," he said, laughing slightly as Remus whined. "You have a class outside."

"Oh screw them," he muttered before pulling Harry into another heated kiss.

Harry returned to his room with a smile on his face. He felt exhausted. It had been another emotional day and, although he felt happy and peaceful, he didn't know what he should be feeling.

Remus was still refusing to make up with Sirius and Harry couldn't help but wonder if he had destroyed their friendship forever. They may have had their troubles before all of this had happened but the recent events just seemed to have been the icing on the cake.

He supposed if he gave them time…maybe discuss with the other why they hated the other…maybe then they would understand each other. Sirius must have really hurt Remus when they broke up all those years ago…maybe Sirius hadn't known how much Remus had loved him. It was more than clear that they were well and truly over each other now though, so Remus must have gotten some closure…

"Well," said a voice, "Don't you look tired. Tough day?"

"You could say that," said Harry, dropping his bag on the floor and collapsing into a chair. "How've they been?"

"Absolute angels," Sirius smiled. "I've just got them to go to sleep; they've been up most of the afternoon so I managed to bath them all and read them one of their books."

"You, Sirius, are one of the greatest people I have ever met," he said lying down on the sofa.

"I know," he smiled. "Are you sure you're ok though?"

"I'm fine," he yawned. "Just tired. Think I might have an early night."

"You'll be alright on your own or do you want me to stay?"

"Whatever you want to do," he said. "You think you're up to looking after me as well as the babies?"

"Oh, that might be a bit of a challenge," he teased. "You seem to be the baby of the lot."

"If I wasn't so weak right now, I'd hit you."

Sirius laughed softly and placed a kiss to Harry's forehead.

"I have to go and have a word with Dumbledore about something," he said, getting to his feet. "If you need me, you have the mirror."

"Thank you for your help," he murmured sleepily.

"Are you sure you don't want me to come back later on?" he asked.

"Remus will be here later," he said. "He's got to look after them at some point."

Sirius laughed softly again and fastened his robes up.

"There're 6 galleons in my bag," Harry said, pointing to the floor.

"I don't want paying for this Harry," he laughed. "I'm doing this out of the goodness of my heart."

"Then I love your heart," he smiled. "Ok. But if you ever need anything I'm here."

"I know," he smiled. He bent down and kissed Harry on the head again. "I'll see you tomorrow."

A/N: Yay! Another chapter posted and Remus and Harry are all happy and jolly and in love! Yay! But I have trouble in store for the next chapter because I'm evil!

Can't write loads right now coz there's this fic I have been dying to read all day and I've finally got a chance so I'm off to read it. I've been looking forward to this all day, lol. Yeah...exciting life that I lead. But the fic sounds really good so toodles!

And thank you all so much for reviewing! -does happy dance-